The end of another year approaches the old New Year Resolutions begins to enter our mind sets! There will be many different resolutions but one I have no doubt will be popular as I am sure it is every year, will be the cut down, or stop all drinking Alcohol all together.
So have you started to think 2015 might be your last year of drinking? Well congratulations, this is the first step towards sobriety, like everything it starts with an idea, and you my friend have that, you have also done some sort of search to end up reading this blog! so again congratulations, it is not easy to admit to yourself that you may have a problem but wanting the change & readying your mind and are the two first most important steps anyone can take, and you have taken them so please make sure you take the time to appreciate this achievement.
However, setting an exact date to stop drinking is unfortunately setting yourself up for failure, in theory the idea is great, from this day forth I will not have a drink, but like most new years resolutions the goals are to high and quickly become unrealistic and to hard eventually killing of all the motivation you started with back in late December.
I wanted to stop drinking for a good year before that faithful last drink, and I cannot to this day tell you what it was that triggered that switch in my head which finally gave me the power to actually not want another drink, but one thing I can tell you is, I tried to set many Saturday's and Sunday's as my last drinking point, but they all failed, it wasn't until I was completely ready that the time was right.
I am not saying do not use a new year resolution as motivation or to help reach your goal, just don't make it the day of reckoning, do not say to yourself form the 1st of January I will not drink anymore, you are putting a huge amount of pressure on yourself and setting yourself up for failure.
A more wise timely approach would be to set 3 or 4 smaller goals, goals that you want to achieve in a certain time frame, Goals that will help reach your end goal of quitting drinking. Remember it is a new years resolution, you have all year to accomplish it so give yourself a chance.
Hear are 4 idea's of smaller goals to help you reach that goal by the end of the new year.
1) 2016 (Or what ever year it may be) Will be the last year I ever drink alcohol. - This allows you a year to reach that point, this allows your mind to find the right time, it also puts a small amount of pressure on it to find it within that year.
2) I will distance myself from friends who are a bad influence on me and my drinking problem. - This takes time and when it comes time to quit drinking ditching those friends who are only friends due to Alcohol becomes a necessity so do it before and make your life easier.
3) I will start a journal, documenting how much I drink, how often & how much i spend, I will then reflect on this each week. - Tracking exactly how much you are drinking will help you realize how damaging alcohol is becoming to your health, your mind & your wallet!
4) I will not drink any Alcohol on a Sunday - This could be any day of the week, but pick a day where you do not touch Alcohol.
The point of this blog is not to bag out new years resolutions, or to discourage anyone, it is simply to identify that there is more to quitting Alcohol, then just deciding to quit, your entire life will change, and if you are not ready for that change neither is your will power and you will inevitably fail.
Set small goals for yourself, each year, each month, each week, each day, each hour. they will lead you to sobriety, it is not a race it is a marathon, remember, your alcoholism did not start the first time you got drunk!
Good luck, and please if there is anything I can ever help you with drop me an email or hit me up on social media, I am always willing to help.
Success built from failure,
The Alcoholic Entrepreneur
www.thealcoholicentrepreneur.com
